Statement of Faith of the Race Street Baptist Church
I. THE WORD OF GOD (II Peter 1:21; II Tim. 3:16-17; I Peter 1:24, 25)
We believe that the Bible consists of 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. We believe that this Bible was written by men who were moved by God the Holy Spirit. The Bible is without error and is our sole authority for faith and practice. We believe that God has inspired every word and that He has preserved His Word to our present day. We believe that God has preserved His Word in the Hebrew Masoretic Text (O.T.) and in the Greek Textus Receptus (N.T.). We believe that the King James Bible is the only translation in the English language which is based on the pure Word of God.
II. GOD (Gen. 1:1; Rev. 1:8; I John 5:7,8; Col. 1:15-17)
We believe in God as revealed in the Bible and that He has created all things. We believe that there is one God existing in three distinct Persons. These Persons are revealed in the Bible as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe that God has revealed Himself in the Word of God, the Bible. God is all-powerful, everywhere present, and knowing all things. He is unchangeable, perfect in holiness, and in control of all things.
III. THE INCARNATION OF GOD THE SON (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:18-25; Col. 2:9; I Cor. 15:1-4; Col. 3:1)
We believe that God the Son became a man and dwelt among us. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born into this world without a sinful nature. Through this birth He became the perfect God-Man. He died on the cross to make an atonement for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead on the third day. He ascended into Heaven bodily and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.
IV.THE FALL AND DEPRAVITY OF MAN (Gen. 3; Rom. 3:10; Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 2:1-3; John 3:1-16)
We believe that man was created by God and that in his original state he was without sin and in fellowship with God. Satan initiated the temptation of man and brought him into disobedience to God. This act of sin resulted in the physical and spiritual death of man. Men are now born with a sinful nature and are in no way able to make themselves acceptable to a holy God. Due to the fact that he is void of spiritual life and unable to save himself, God had to provide a way of salvation for him.
V. SALVATION (Rom. 3:23; I Cor. 15:3; Jn. 3:16; Tit. 3:5; Jn. 10:27-29)
We believe that all men are sinners and in need of a Saviour who can take away their sin and make them acceptable to God. We believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and as our substitute. All who believe on Him as their personal Lord and Saviour are saved and receive the gift of eternal life. When the sinner believes from the heart, he is regenerated by God the Holy Spirit and is, therefore, born again. We believe that whosoever will may come to Christ for salvation; therefore, we reject the un-Biblical teaching of Five-Point Calvinism. We believe in the eternal security of the believer and that once saved you are always saved. Therefore, we are opposed to the Arminian teaching that you can lose your salvation.
VI. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE (II Cor. 5:8; I Thes. 4:14; Luke 16:19-31; Rev. 20:11-15)
We believe that the spirits of the saved at death go to be with the Lord Jesus in Heaven. They will return with Him at the Rapture of the Church and will be united with their resurrected bodies at that time. We believe that the spirits of the lost at death go to Hades where they are in conscious suffering until the Great White Throne Judgment. At that time they will be united with their resurrected bodies, judged, and cast into the eternal lake of fire.
VII. THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH (Acts 1:11; I Thes. 4:13-18; Luke 12:40)
We believe in the personal, bodily, pre-tribulational, pre-millennial, and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven. At this time the Church, made up of all believers in Jesus Christ, past and present, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the dead in Christ rising first.
VIII. THE DEVIL (Eph. 2:1-4; Rev. 20:1-10)
We believe that Satan is literal and personal, the agent of the Fall, the prince and power of this world, and that he will be judged and eternally punished.
IX. HEAVEN AND HELL (John 5:28-29; Rev. 20:11 - 21:27)
We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. We believe in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell. The saved will live forever with Jesus Christ in Heaven. The lost will exist forever in the eternal lake of fire, separated from God, in conscious torment and without hope.
X. FUTURE THINGS
We believe that the Church age will end with the Rapture just prior to the seven years of the Great Tribulation. At the end of the Great Tribulation, the Lord Jesus will return to save Israel and set up His Kingdom and reign for 1,000 years. He will rule with His Bride, the Church, over Israel and the nations. During this time Satan will be bound and righteousness will cover the earth. At the end of the 1,000 year reign, Satan will be loosed and head up one final rebellion. God will defeat him and send him off to the eternal lake of fire. Then will begin the new Heaven and new Earth. This teaching is known as Pre-Tribulational and Pre-Millennial. It is based on a literal interpretation of the Bible and is known as the Dispensational view of Scripture.
XI. BAPTISM (Acts 8:35-39; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-5)
We believe that immersion is the only form of baptism revealed and commanded in the Bible, and that it is only for those who are already saved. We believe it is a symbol and therefore unable to wash away sins or have any saving power at all. It is an identifying symbol of the Death, Burial, and Bodily Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In baptism we publicly testify of our own death, burial, and resurrection with our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that personal saving faith is a prerequisite for baptism and that the act of baptism neither saves nor baptizes one with the Holy Spirit. Salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit come at the moment faith is placed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
XII. THE LORD’S SUPPER (I Cor. 11:23-34)
We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial ordinance which the Church observes in remembrance of the Lord’s death on the cross. We believe the cup signifies the blood which He shed on the cross for us. We believe the bread signifies His body which was broken for us. We believe that all who have been born again should participate after examining themselves. No born again believer should excuse himself from partaking.
XIII. THE CHURCH (I Cor. 12:13, 27; Acts 2:47; I Cor. 1:2; I Thes. 1:1)
We believe that the New Testament Church is made up of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour from sin. We believe the local Church is God’s ordained plan for reaching the lost and edifying the believers. We believe that Christians should be encouraged to start and attend local Churches in the area where they live.
XIV. THE LIFE OF THE BELIEVER (II Cor. 7:1; I Thes. 5:22; I Jn. 2:15-17; II Cor. 6:14-18; Eph. 5:11, 12)
We believe that the believer’s life is to be guided by the Holy Spirit in obedience to the Word of God. This will produce a life which is marked by several areas of separation.. There will be a separation from sin as the new life in Christ is allowed to control the believer. There will be a separation from the world as the believer realizes he is in the world but not of it. The Christian should abstain from all worldly activities of an evil nature and even from the appearance of evil. The saint is to be constantly perfecting holiness and becoming more like Christ each day. We believe that the believer should separate himself from all groups or associations of people who are part of the apostasy, or those who do not preach the truth or hold to the same doctrines as we do. We believe the believer should separate himself from organizations such as the World Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals, any Ecumenical Movements, and Co-operative Evangelism with groups who do not hold like faith, doctrine, and practice.
XV. THE HEALING AND TONGUES MOVEMENT
We believe that the faith healers of today are unsound in doctrine and contrary to the teaching of the Word of God. We believe that the tongues movement otherwise known as the Charismatic Movement is carried on in an unscriptural manner. The fact that it is engaged in by people of varying doctrinal beliefs and by people who are not saved stamps it as of the Devil .
